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As you read this I will be getting on my local bus and travelling the 20 minutes from my family home into the city. I’ll probably be nervous and checking the time every two seconds and probably sweating with anxiety and overthinking. Despite having a welcome day and knowing a good few of the other people I’m starting work with, there is still a huge amount of unknown ahead of me. I’ve always, always been terrified of the unknown and this time there’s a lot more riding on it.

Shiny new work shoes - Clarks

Today I’m starting my two year legal traineeship. After 5 years at uni (4 years of the undergraduate law degree and 1 year of the professional legal practice course) I am finally at the culmination of all that training. And it’s pretty damn scary. There’s a lot of thoughts going through my head, all whizzing around and whipping up feelings of anxiety inside me.

Am I going to like it?

The problem with the way the Scottish law course is set up is that you have very little hands on experience unless you actively go out and seek it. I worked one day a week doing admin in a legal office for a year and also spent 2 months working for a legal firm but I still don’t know what actually working there full time with your own clients will be like. Will I enjoy it? Will it be vastly different from what I’m expecting? Will I have gone five years into a career path that in the end I won’t like? I believe this worry is the same with anything you’ve never properly done before. You can never know before you do it and the chances are, I probably will like it. I just need to throw myself into it, give it my best go and see if its for me.

The fear of ‘oh my god this is me now working full time forever more’

Now that is one scary thought. Now don’t get me wrong I have had a job since I’ve been 16 years old but there’s always been breaks in between when I’ve gone back to uni etc. It’s never seemed like such a terrifying unchanging stretch lying ahead of me. As a student we were so used to a more flexible type of living that something so rigid seems pretty terrifying in the beginning. However, I also have to admit I love a bit of routine. I’ve been brought up to work hard and that if you work hard you will be able to enjoy the life out of work that you want to believe. I’m sure I’ll get used to it at some point, I’ve put it off long enough!

What if they drop me in the deep end on day one?

No matter how much training you do, nothing can ever prepare you for real life work like actually doing it can. I’m so scared that I will sit down on my first day in my seat and they will place something in front of me and my mind will go blank. I know this is my panick-y mind going into overdrive and that they know I’m new and so will (hopefully) talk me through everything but its still a very real fear. I need to remember however that even if they do, I’m not the first one this will happen to, I have other trainees to run away to for help and that deep down, if I take a deep breath, I have the skills to work out anything put in front of me.

The ‘I’m actually an adult with a career, a pension and a life assurance scheme’ feeling

Woah thats a damn scary thought. Pensions and life assurance and bills and direct debits etc all seemed so so far away less than a year ago and now they’re all perched right in front of me staring me down. I think sometimes I forget that I’m actually 23 years old and still imagine myself to be a little 19 year old but we all have to grow up sometime.

And finally, I feel lucky.

I know a few of my very good friends are still looking for positions at the moment and I’m lucky enough to have had a place waiting for me for the past two years. It’s been nice having that security throughout my final exams, my dissertation, my legal practice course and my part time work and travelling. I am someone who feels most comfortable with a plan and the security has alleviated a lot of extra worrying I could have done. I am looking ahead to the next two years within a great, well respected and varied Scottish firm and have many opportunities ahead of me. So despite all the above worries and fears (which I’m convincing myself are completely natural on first the day of a new job) I really am happy with the way things have turned out.

Ultimately, I know I will feel better once the first day has passed, the first day jitters have worn off and the unknown becomes a bit more familiar. I know I’ll reach that point of actually believing I can do it but I’ve just got to battle through today first!

Sitting in the midst of happy revellers in an Arabic style tent in the Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe, our night was almost over. We had just been to see a raucous performance by the energetic ‘Abandoman’ and we settled down to have one final tipsy glass of wine to round off the night before getting the bus home to bed. After a perhaps unwise (but very much needed) mixture of wine, gin, cocktails and beer our eyes were dazed but sparkly and our conversation clouded with tipsy wittering. We were immersed in each other and our own world, talking about anything and everything as well as nonsense and nothing.

Into our wittering politely interrupted a nervously excited girl in glitter. She told us that her first show of the Fringe was about to start and she wondered if we’d like to go along. Endeared by her non-pushy approach and giddy on the high of the rest of the night, we decided to extend our evening, miss our last bus and take a chance on this wide-eyed lovely in a sparkly jumpsuit. After all, after that many drinks nothing could really be that awful.

Katie Brennan took to a small stage in a darkened room accompanied by her piano playing maestro and companion. The Underbelly’s Wee Coo (I struggle to think when I’ve been to a venue with a cuter name) was intimate, with only 4 or so rows on each side and was a welcome cosy retreat from what had become a drizzly evening. August in Edinburgh is almost as unpredictable as the shows the month welcomes!

With little expectations, the show started and with the intimacy of the venue and the raw honesty of Katie’s relatable anecdotes you felt like you’d fallen in from a night of gins and cheap wine into Katie’s own bedroom and you’d decided it was time to have a right girly debrief about life. Katie’s content is not unlike things I haven’t seen or read before - I have enjoyed sympathising with similar topics of many a blogger or comedienne before. However, it is her delivery, ability to relate and the combination with her enviable musical talent which sets her apart from the other 90’s commentators. Katie’s expressions and hilarity bring her candid and cackle-worthy stories to life. Admittedly I have not quite reached some of the peaks and troughs of Katie’s Quarter Life Crisis just yet, such as her telling tales of being a ‘bad bad bridesmaid’ but I’d like to think that if I ever have the pleasure of being a bridesmaid I will remember Katie’s witticisms and try and be a great, great bridesmaid!

The majority of Katie’s content was of course directed towards the more female cohort but nonetheless my boyfriend still had a right good giggle, perhaps identifying some of Katie’s own traits and memories from his experiences of me. For example, I got a nudge in the ribs and a rye smirk when Katie was discussing how women really are crazy. I got you gal.

Despite the hilarity, 90s songs and quips about gin and hangovers (which I was to experience the next morning) Katie’s show also had a more serious message and undertone which perhaps I identified more than most on that particular day. That day I had had an awful time at work to the point where I’d actually ended up in tears as I’d left. Any gal will know that whatever the emotion, if it gets too much, the waterworks threat to break their barriers and overflow whether that be sadness, anger or frustration. Katie’s honesty and ability to see the funny and positive side of this stage in our twenties made me see that I didn’t need to just sit back and take what had happened at work. I found her words triggering thoughts in my head about my own life. Katie describes the show as not only a show but cathartic therapy for her and perhaps it also served as some sort of light bulb moment and temporary therapy for me too. She made me recognise I had to embrace the good, the bad, the happy and the downright laughable moments of our quarter-life crisis’ and be content in the fact that the big bad mid-life crisis is still a far way off!

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Katie Brennan’s Quarter Life Crisis is on at The Wee Coo at the Underbelly in the Edinburgh Fringe between the 3rd and the 29th August at 10:50pm - it really is worth going to see and as she says herself even better after a few glasses of wine! P.s. she’s also a blogger too, so even better, she’s one of my people.

I'm a firm believer that there is no better day in the week to have brunch than on a Sunday. If you follow me on Instagram you'll have realised I've had a recent love affair with poached eggs. A couple of weeks ago Jamie Oliver's recipe of the day caught my eye on Instagram so today I thought I'd share that recipe with you with a few of my little twists! It's a great healthy brunch recipe with lots of flavour to really hit the spot alongside a good latte. I chose to add some mediterranean flavours to my recipe with lemon juice and an olive, pepper and tomato bread.

This recipe will take you about 20 minutes maximum!

To serve two people you will need:

Four eggs (the fresher the better - my boyfriend's Dad has hens so ours were freshly laid!)

The real skill here is getting it all ready without anything going cold... maybe you'll master it better than I did! I poached my eggs for about 4 minutes (I like mine soft boiled) in a pan of boiling water with a drop of white win vinegar in it.

Method: Toast

Cut your bread into wide slices and toast in the toaster until golden brown. Don't make them too toasted here! I chose to use mediterranean bread here as it has more flavour and is also softer than sour dough which I sometimes find can be a bit jaw-breaking!

Method: Asparagus

Firstly I chopped the ends off my asparagus spears. I then sautéed the spears in a little butter and olive oil for about 6-8 minutes until soft. I then drizzled them with lemon juice and sprinkled with black pepper and sea salt.

Method: Putting it together!

Lay your toast down on a plate and drizzle with a little olive oil. Follow this by topping with your freshly poached eggs (cutting them to let the yolk drizzle out mmmm). Then lay your asparagus spears over the eggs and top with some parmesan shavings. TASTY.

This is a great way to impress your friends if they're round for lunch (even if I do say so myself) or for treating yourself on a lazy Sunday.